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American author and critics William Dean Howells (1837-1920) wrote in 1894:

“Without it (drink—ed.), there would be far less poverty than there is, but poverty is a good old American institution, too; there would inevitably be less equality, but inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.”

“Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself” is a quotation that has been included in many quotation collections.

Wikipedia: William Dean HowellsWilliam Dean Howells (March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed “The Dean of American Letters”, he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story “Christmas Every Day” and the novel The Rise of Silas Lapham.

Google Books
March 1894, The Cosmopolitan, pg. 558:
LETTERS OF AN ALTRURAIN TRAVELLER.
By W. D. HOWELLS
PLUTOCRATIC CONTRASTS AND CONTRADICTIONS.
Pg. 565:
Without it (drink—ed.), there would be far less poverty than there is, but poverty is a good old American institution, too; there would inevitably be less equality, but inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.

Google BooksThe Executive’s Book of Quotations
Edited by Julia Vitullo-Martin and J. Robert Moskin
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
1994
Pg. 105:
“Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty.”
WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS, author and editor

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Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself. -Howells, William Dean http://qtsbk.com/32093/
10:00 PM - 13 Aug 07